Christmas Tag Swap

The Burton girls were at it again with a Christmas tag swap. We wanted to do the swap early enough in December that a) we would be able to put up our tags for Christmas decoration, and b) Our Sis who is currently lining in Australia would get hers in time for Christmas. I think we made it!

This year our Christmas theme was more of a color scheme. The theme was Winter Whites. Our tags were to focus on white, cream, silver, gold, and sepia.

I made a banner with the Christmas tags and strung it across my piano for the holidays. I love the look of these tags. They turned out beautiful, and look great displayed together.

A few of us have already had some great ideas for next year’s theme. I’m already excited. Thanks ladies!

-Lynnae

Halloween Tag Swap

One craft project the ladies in my family enjoy is having a tag swap. These usually involve some of my sisters, my mom and a sister in law. Having a tag swap gives us a chance to do a small manageable art project, and  it’s a fun way to stay connected to those that live far away. We don’t use the tags on gifts, just to decorate around the house.

We decide on a holiday or theme, give people a chance to join, and then set a target date for mailing the tag.

These are the tags for our Halloween 2013 tag swap. I made the one on the top left. Each of us made six tags. we keep one of our own and mail out the others to the other participants.

Aren’t they cute?

-Lynnae

Thrift Shop China

Over the past few years I’ve collected china teacups and saucers for my friends to use at my annual Jane Austen party. I’m getting a nice little collection.

For quite some time I’ve considered collecting more china pieces to use for little get-togethers. The big hold up was that I wanted pieces with red. Well, it seems that the only china to be found with red in the design is Christmas china. Either that or people love it so much they don’t give it to thrift stores.

I don’t have a new china set of my own, a situation I hope to remedy in the future, but in the meantime I finally decided to give up on china with red in it, and just collect a few larger plates to mix and match.

Now every time I go in the thrift store I look to see if there’s a plate or two that strikes my fancy.

I love mixing and matching and stacking the plates. The plates can look so different when paired with another style that you notice new things in the design with every stack.

-Lynnae

A Pink Fiesta

Look what I just found!

Fiesta ‘Flamingo’!

This will be a great addition to my lovely rainbow of Fiesta dinnerware. I’m so excited!

The color is still in preorder but I ordered a few to add to my collection. I’m so excited. They look so lovely!

In other news…. Our England trip is less than a month away. I’m freaking out a little bit right now. And I’m so very grateful I have a sister who lives there to not only invite me, but be familiar with the area a bit. It’s strange to travel without my husband.

Speaking of his deployment, he ate camel meat. Can you believe it?

And on the home front, today is the last day of school. My daughter went to the park with friends and I brought them a bag full of treats to celebrate. And in an unusual twist for Washington, it actually LOOKED like summer. Hoorah!

-Lynnae

Baby Shower Fun

Last time I told you I was making decorations for my friend’s baby shower, and here’s a little peek at how it turned out.

I made giant tissue paper flowers in two colors, two coffee filter balls, and used a round Chinese lantern. The white poof on top is made from coffee filters glued onto a paper-mâché ball. The light pink poof on the right is also made from coffee filters, but the I wanted bigger so I got the commercial size package at Staples, and I dyed them in food coloring. Using dye, tea, or even just water changes the consistency of the filter a little bit and I like it.

This turned out too big to go over the table so I put it in the ‘pass thru’ window by the dining room with a 3M Command hook. I love those babies! I made wire hooks on each piece like you would with an ornament, then connected longer wire and twisted it into a loop at the top. This came from an inspiration photo I saw on Pinterest, and here is a link to the original at Divine Living.

A Baby Shower Game:

This is a matching game. Prepare by writing each word on the left on two corresponding 3x5 cards, and buy the candy bars listed.

To play you will mix up the cards and lay them out on the floor or table. Going around the circle each person turns over two cards to try and get a match. If you get a match you win the candy bar that goes with that word. Then play goes to the next person. Here are the words and candy bars:

Little girls……..Sweet Tarts

Daddy…………..Big Hunk

Baby Names….Whatchamacallit

9 months………Rocky Road

Coo’s and Giggles….Snickers

Teething………..Munch

Weight Gain……Chunky

Pacifier…………..Gobstopper

Multiples………..Sixlets

Nursing………….Milk Duds

Premie……………Runts

Conception………Skor

OBGYN…………….Butterfinger

Epidural…………..Life Saver

Tax deduction…..Pay Day

Contraction………Whopper

You can’t always find all these candy bars. Try to have at least 10 so you have 20 cards on the table for your match game. Have fun!

-Lynnae

Living Room Corner

For a while now I’ve been working on this little corner of my living room. I had this crazy idea to paint an ugly 70’s lamp, so of course I did. My husband HATED it. Oh well. I was sad but more determined to put it front and center. I returned two shades to the store as ‘not quite right’ before my sister and I stumbled upon this one at a local Goodwill. It looks like it was made for my room. Once the lampshade came home everything else started to fall into place.

  I did try two or three ‘objects’ to set on the books, moving them from other locations in the house and nothing looked quite right. Then, while eating Thai food and thinking about the neon sign of our local Thai restaurant, with it’s mommy and baby elephant, I got the idea that what I really needed (OK, maybe not NEEDED) was a little ellie of my own. The next thing you know I come across this ceramic elephant on the clearance shelf at Michaels. Happy me.

Our Kana Poster is from our stay in Japan, and the Heywood mirrored bedside cabinet in from Pier One (there’s a similar on the other side of the piano).

How do you like it?

The New Orleans Reception

After My daughter Hillary and Nicholas’ reception we had a few days to prepare for our New Orleans trip. This time my husband and youngest daughter would join us and I was excited to show them the city. But first we had a few days of packing, taking clothes and tuxes to the cleaners and hoping they’d be done on time, shipping photos, and catching up on sleep. I’ve been tripping over boxes hastily packed at our reception venue and eating Jordan Almonds by the handful. Why were there so many left over?

  Nick’s family were wonderful hosts and the reception was beautiful. Here are some of my photos from the New Orleans wedding reception.The room was very elegant. We had a Rosemary chicken dinner, and the first course?……..Gumbo. My husband was in heaven.In stead of numbering the tables they were named after famous New Orleans streets.

There was a head table for the bride, groom, and their families.

My Husband and my younger daughters

Me and Hillary

My husband and I pose for a picture on the balcony

Hillary dancing with her new sister-in-law. Darling!

The single girls assemble around the bride for the cake pulls.

Cake pulls are a southern tradition. Before the frosting is completed silver charms are put into a cake attached to ribbons. each young lady takes a ribbon and they all pull at the same time.

Hillary with her younger sisters. Jordan got the Four Leaf Clover (Luck) and Arianne got the Fleur de Lis (Prosperity & Love).

The bouquet toss

Nicholas and Hillary

-Lynnae

Our Wedding Reception

We had a wedding reception for Hillary and Nicholas at Tibbet’s Creek Manor in Issaquah.Now you will see where all the hard work from my helpers came in. I am so glad I had family and friends there to help me set up, because we only had a couple hours and My mind was in a bit of a fog. I’m also glad I had written up plans for each display area or decoration. We had to go back to the house and were running late, and my family was already setting things up for me.

Remember all the sewing my sisters and I did? Well the majority of it was for the tent curtains, which looked fabulous inside and out.

And even better at night!

Hillary really wanted a chocolate fountain, and it was a big hit.

The cake was lovely too.

      Before the reception began.

One of the neat things we did was have a table of old wedding pictures from Hillary and Nick’s parents, grandparents, and great-grand parents. Hillary has a love of family history and I thought this idea would be a cool way to show that. I’ve never seen it done before. In the rush I didn’t get a clear picture of it, but this picture taken during set up will give you an idea until we get the professional pictures back.

Three of my sisters and I during the set-up. So many people worked so hard. I am full of gratitude. It was a very fun night.

-Lynnae

Intricate and Beautiful

Look at the lovely screen I picked up on my last trip to Hobby Lobby. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it when we were on a trip to Utah. We came home and I dreamed about it for the next two months. When I went back to bring home my college girl I made a trip to Hobby Lobby in Orem with my sister. I picked up a few iron easels for the wedding reception. I also saw ‘my’ screen again, and it was on sale. It’s a lovely green color that looks fabulous in my house, and looks great against white walls too.

Since bringing it home I have tried out several locations. I love this area in my living room, and it’s stayed here the longest, but I really would like it in my family room just so I could stare at it more.

What do you think?

-Lynnae

Vanity Project.

I was looking for a new vanity dresser for my bedroom. I couldn’t face another summer of getting ready for church at my sink in a busy, humid bathroom. But I was hoping to go the cheap route, with either an inexpensive new vanity dresser, (under $150ish) or a thrift store desk that I could fix up cute and add a mirror to.

But low and behold, one day at the thrift store I found a darling vintage vanity. It wasn’t a cheap desk to fix up, but it fell within my loose budget for a vanity. I was hoping for something with character that I could paint a charming white, or a sassy black, and it would look so good in my bedroom. I debated for a few minutes, and then, assisted b the encouragement of a gray haired lady who was also shopping there, I bought it.

All the way home I went back and forth between white and black paint. But you know what? The more I looked back in the rear view mirror, the more the sunlight caught that wood grain, the more I knew I couldn’t paint it- yet. There’s no rush. It’s great as it is. And I’m a sucker for a glorious wood grain. And, just like the white or black paint, the wood grain would look awesome in my bedroom. (That’s the beauty of having a turquois bedroom!)

So, for the time being the vanity will keep it’s grain. The wood is in great condition, except for the table top area, which I can cover until I choose to fix it. The furniture is sturdy, strong, clean and well made. I am so excited to ‘girly it up’, like a cross between Elizabeth Taylor’s vanity in “Whose afraid of Virginia Wolf”, and Molly Ringwald’s cheery dresser in “Pretty in Pink”.

This………

plus this……..

will someday soon be mine!

Other things on my agenda:

My Army Man husband has been gone for a month for training. It’s good to have him home!

Also, my daughter’s bridal’s are coming up, and wedding plans, wedding plans, wedding plans!

-Lynnae

Lovely Finds

I was at the local Ben Franklin store to get a few items for my daughters costume for the school play and ran across these lovely, old carved wood print blocks. They were in a bin in the back, dirty and well used and absolutely beautiful. I had to get a couple to display around the house.

They had a lot of other great things there too. I feel lucky to live close to a Ben Franklin store, and just need to get there more often!

Aren’t they gorgeous?

-Lynnae

Stand a Little Taller

I saw this cute sign while I was out shopping the other day. I don’t know what I like more, the cottage style, the Empire State Building, or the cheery message.

“Stand a Little Taller- Make Each Day a Little Better Than the One Before”.

That’s just what I need to see when I come down on a groggy school day morning.

I bought the sign at Cost Plus World Market. They had a lot of merchandise out for spring and I couldn’t resist a photo of these brightly colored decorations.

It’s good to have your camera with you.

Last week I also got a little tired of the shelves in my family room. So they went from this……

To this…… I need to switch out some accessories I think, But I only can seem to get a little done at a time, so it’s a start. To some people (like my sweet husband) it may seem like I randomly pulled out some paint and started painting something, but this shelf has been bugging me, and I’ve been thinking about painting it for a long time.

Not that there’s anything wrong with randomly painting something……

-Lynnae